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As a result, four executives got no more than half as much stock as they would have if the company had met or exceeded all of its goals, according to a regulatory filing Friday.

The Microsoft proxy filing provided a detailed look at how the board evaluates company leaders and motivates them with company stock.

Financial analysts were glad to see that top executives did not get the full award they could have for the past fiscal year.

"I would be more concerned if they were paying out 100 percent," said Charlie Di Bona, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein, noting that while the company posted strong sales and profits in fiscal year 2007, there were problems of varying magnitude across the company.

"This is not putting-bread-on-the-table money, this is gravy money, and so you want the gravy to be something that you have to earn," he said.

Microsoft began its Shared Performance Stock Awards program in the 2004 fiscal year as part of a shift away from stock options. The program is designed to be the biggest component of compensation for about 950 top-tier Microsoft employees — typically starting with the "partner" or general-manager level — and to tie that compensation to company performance.

The amount of the award is based on an individual's role and responsibilities, and an aggregate score measuring the company's performance against a set of goals.

Achieving the goals nets an executive 100 percent of his or her target payout. Awards can be smaller or larger, up to 150 percent of the target payout, depending how much goals are missed or exceeded.

In making its first set of awards under the program last year, the board evaluated company performance during a three-year period ended June 30, 2006.

For that period, the board looked at four areas: customer satisfaction, unit volumes of Windows products, usage of Microsoft's developer tools and desktop application deployment.

Microsoft "exceeded the target in one metric, reached the target in two others, and performed below the target in the fourth," according to an earlier filing. Microsoft did not disclose specifics on which areas missed, met or exceeded expectations.